RBI Grade B Officer (General / DEPR / DSIM) 2023 · Question 173 of 260

Read the following passage and answer the questions based on the available information. The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 has rightfully identified 21st century skills as fundamental to developing creators. Critical thinking and problem solving, communication and collaboration, creativity and innovation, flexibility and adaptability, initiative and self- direction, social and cross-cultural interactions, and productivity and accountability all strengthen the individuals’ abilities at the workplace. Relying on traditional literacy and numeracy alone will not suffice and tends to marginalize differently abled learners. Educators could consider a design-based approach where students concentrate on a subject for two-three weeks to examine how it can be applied in the real world. But does our current classroom and content-heavy syllabus enable deep work? Also, how do we retrain teachers who have been trained in traditional systems? They know terms like ‘constructivism’ but do not know how it should be used in a classroom that is focused on exams rather than learning. And how ready are our future educators? In a semester-long study that used Wikipedia as a pedagogical tool for teacher training, 65 pre- service (B.Ed) teachers were asked to improve the pages on Wikipedia related to educational concepts. Excluding a few, the content created by most participants was either sent back to them or deleted by neutral editors of Wikipedia. The content, it was found, was plagiarised, did not provide citations, lacked basic writing and grammar skills, etc. After three iterative cycles that were emotionally intense, the teachers were able to contribute content to over 75 Wikipedia articles in English and over 50 articles in Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, Malayalam, Gujarati, Assamese and Punjabi. All the content was related to educational technology. The critical feedback from various Wikipedia editors was crucial because it was unbiased. This feedback forced the learners to re-evaluate their skills. This shows that constant engagement, an emotional connection, and immersive learning are important parts of education. EdTech apps can deliver content that caters to multiple learning styles, learning curves and pace of learning. The pandemic has shown that traditional teacher and brick-and-mortar schools may become obsolete if radical pedagogical changes do not follow. The author is in line with-

Reading Comprehension

1. AA. Children have lost all personal contact with their social group due to the pandemic.
2. BB. The field of education is not evolving over time, with contemporary methods not able to find place in the classroom in a traditional setup.
3. CC. Over-reliance on technology comes at a cost.
4. DD. Education requires continual involvement, emotional connection, and deep learning.Correct
5. EE. None of these.